Patrick Coyne was popular with the other sales people in his firm but he was always the lowest producer in his region and in the country. As a matter of fact he finished dead last in sales production for five consecutive years. The new vice president of sales ordered Coyne’s manager to give him one month to improve or be fired. Patrick got the message and would you believe that in one month he was the top salesperson in the company? Amazed, the vice president and the regional manager sat down with Patrick to learn his secret. “Tell us how you did it,” pleaded the vice president. “What did you do differently this month? Describe your sales calls.”

“OK,” says Patrick. “Last Tuesday I called on two purchasing directors and both placed huge orders. One guy told me that his wife was the most beautiful woman in Wisconsin.

I said: ‘fantastic.’ Then he said both his sons were not only top athletes but exceptional scholars. I said ‘outstanding.’ The other purchasing director boasted that he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. I said ‘fantastic.’ Then he added that he was voted the most likely to succeed and that he married the home coming queen. I said ‘outstanding.’

The vice president remarked. “That’s it? That’s all you did? What did you do differently?” “Oh, well,” says Patrick, “before this month, instead of saying ‘fantastic’ and ‘outstanding,’ I used to say ‘bull @#$%.’”

In January I returned to the business after a three-year absence. Since then I made 61 face-to-face sales calls. I would like to share what I learned and relearned and to call your attention to some trends.

Business is definitely picking up, companies are hiring but they are cautious. HR is concerned that critical people are starting to test the waters and may leave the company for more opportunity and better compensation. Organizations realize that Internet recruiting is not the answer to their critical staffing needs. Corporations are serious about building partnerships with recruiting firms that produce and can solve their problems.

Companies do not want to do business as usual: some are impatient and do not intend to wait an inordinate amount of time before they start seeing candidates. Some few are looking for deals that are pretty one-sided, others want value for their money and a performance based fee structure. Most want to know how you differ from your competitors, the specifics of your search process, and what value you will add to their staffing initiatives.

What makes your firm unique? Some human resources professionals think all third party recruiters offer the same services. Your “differences” should play to the company’s needs. Companies want to partner with recruiters who can help them. Find out what it would take to become a “partner” with a specific company. The death knell is when the staffing people think you are ‘just like all the rest’ and are doing business as usual.

Last month in TFL, Mark Berger and Wade Haught talked about “differentiation” and advised: “to find a way to differentiate your services, look at two things: the problems that cause businesses to need search services, and, the reasons why your clients dislike using search services.”

Most companies were glad to be called upon and were very generous with their time. This reinforced a long-standing belief that, in our industry, forging and enhancing relationships is everything. We have to be experts at relationship selling, we have to do what we say we are going to do, we have to produce in a timely way, and we have to see our clients.

I’m selling diversity searches so I learned a lot in these sales calls about the status of diversity in corporate America today. First of all, diversity is really on the table. Some companies truly get it; others, as Roosevelt Thomas says, “are stuck.” Employee referral programs, advertising, and the Internet are not bringing in diversity candidates. Companies are looking to recruiting firms for assistance. Staffing people seem much more knowledgeable in diversity issues, e.g., the population numbers of diverse communities, how to cast a wider net, telling their diversity success stories, and cultural awareness and sensitivity.

A growing trend is that many companies are reticent about targeted searches for diversity candidates. Instead they insist that search firms present a final slate of candidates made up of people of color, traditional people, and women. I fought against this years ago because I had been burned so often by companies who were just getting fodder for their EEO reports. I remember doing six searches for one client who insisted on this representative slate. I worked hard to make sure that the female and diverse candidates were equal to or better than the traditional candidates. The company hired five white males and one Latino male. How do I feel about this emerging trend? Okay, as long as the diverse and female candidates are given equal consideration and that the recruiting firm can substantiate and document why they couldn’t identify and present diverse and women candidates.

Companies are interested in learning more about cultural differences, especially when these differences cause interviewer bias. Informed human resources professionals think interviewer bias may be keeping talented diversity candidates from being hired.

The integration of newly hired executives is a considerable concern in corporations. Replacing executives who do not make this transition is costly not only in dollars but in lost productivity, mismanagement, poor customer service, and lowered workplace morale. This issue has given rise to “on-boarding programs” which provide for the successful and rapid integration of the new executive. Companies expect that the recruiting firms they use will know about “on-boarding” and be able to recommend consultants that provide this service.

Candidate research is still popular with staffing people. Many used it throughout the recession and plan to continue to build databases of prospective candidates by using research. At one of my recent sales calls, the director of strategic staffing of a huge company told me that they plan to get all their diversity candidates through research.

I’m sure I will learn more as I continue to make sales calls in the months ahead. The advice I give myself is simple:

- Plan your marketing: write it down, continually update your plan, and work your plan.

- Make sales calls: see your customers; make 5 face-to-face calls each week.

- Differentiate your firm: know and sell your differences.

- Capture all the information you learn on sales calls: get it into the computer ASAP.

- Follow up after each sales call, e.g., email, note card.

Stay tuned.

A statement made by John Challenger, CEO, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in a speech at Fisher College of Business is thought provoking and encouraging especially for people in our business. “In corporate America, we are looking at a major shortage of companies’ most important supply: people. The government estimates that in fewer than seven years there will be nearly 168 million jobs in our economy, but only about 158 million people in the labor market to fill them – a shortfall of 10 million workers.

Between 2005 and 2015, the number of workers 65 and older is expected to increase 26 percent. Meanwhile, the population of 40 to 54 year-olds will shrink by five percent. And, the number of Americans 25 to 39 will grow by only six percent.” Challenger points out that a surging shortfall of college graduates is a major trend today.

What does all this mean to us? Employers will have far fewer candidates for their available positions, especially for positions that require higher and more technical skill levels. “More and more companies will have to find alternatives, which may mean outsourcing work to other countries where workers with the right skills are more readily available. It has been estimated that as many as 3.3 million American jobs will move overseas by 2015.”

In this same talk, Challenger demonstrated that globalization will radically change jobs in the U.S. Globalization means “that the next generation of business executives will be required to have a much better understanding of the global market. In the new global economy, the biggest winners in the job market will be the New Americans, highly educated, with roots in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, matching the diversity of the increasingly global marketplace. They will be in demand because they offer leadership and exceptional skills.”

Chief among these skills will be the ability to speak and write a second, third, or even a fourth language. College students today who are tomorrow’s workforce may be getting the message, at least on the importance of languages. The number of college students learning foreign languages is at a record high. The Modern Language Association reports that the biggest increase was in Arabices, which saw enrollment jump 92.5 percent in 2002.

The impending labor shortage and globalization are the winds of change; winds of change that focus on the importance of diversity. Dr. John Sullivan who writes for The Electronic Recruiting Exchange (www.erexchange.com) meets these winds of change head on with a series of recent articles entitled “Re-Thinking Diversity Recruiting.” Says Sullivan: “In a global economy, having a diverse workplace is no longer an option. It has become an absolute requirement for success in a global economy.”

This past January, after a three-year absence, I returned to the diversity search business. I’ll readily admit that I was a little timorous. I’ve heard all the war stories about a paralyzed marketplace, a marketplace hostile and indifferent to the sales efforts of recruiting firms. I remembered from past experience that the majority of companies were less then enthusiastic about diversity recruiting programs. But I honestly think that these winds of change are hammering corporate America with doses of reality. I’m finding many companies to be more receptive and more aware. I was going to say “more eager and anxious to make things happen” but I’ve been down that road before. Companies are more realistic and they want to hear solutions. Maybe in the divine scheme of things, some are finally getting it.

Back to Dr. Sullivan. Read how he broadens the definition of diversity: “We define diversity as the need for corporations to have a wide variety of ideas, perspectives, lifestyles, and experiences in their decision-making processes, product design, service delivery, etc. This means that people with diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences must participate and be listened to in all jobs and at all levels of decision making.”

Sullivan cites and describes in detail why diversity recruiting programs come up short:

1. Program goals are not clear

2. Lack of a strong business case

3. Underutilizing referrals

4. No rewards for success

5. Little innovation in tools and strategies

6. Weak recruiters

7. Little market research

8. Weak metrics

9. Too much focus on active candidates

10. Not enough emphasis on orientation and retention

Parts 2 and 3 of “Re-Thinking Diversity Recruiting” outline action steps for “overcoming traditional weaknesses and turning mediocre diversity recruiting programs into great ones.” There are a host of reasons why this article should be required reading for all of us in the recruiting business:

? It is a mini Ph.D. in how to diagnose and prescribe for the maladies and malaise in diversity recruiting programs

? It is a blueprint to help you guide your clients in solving a perennial problem

? It provides an arsenal of ammunition for selling diversity recruiting

? It will give you the knowledge to differentiate and distance yourself from the majority of recruiters both inside companies and in our industry who just don’t get it. What makes us different helps us to sell more effectively.

I really enjoyed Part 3 of the article where Sullivan, in a very gutsy way, dispels two myths that have been around since the dinosaur days of recruiting:

1. Not everyone can be an effective recruiter

2. Coming from a diverse background is not enough to make you a great diversity recruiter

Sullivan provides a plan of action for finding, recruiting, hiring and retaining diverse candidates. Here are a few salient points from Part 3 that should entice you to download, read and re-read this article:

? The skills required to recruit excellent diverse individuals are the same skills required to recruit any excellent individual.

? These skills include a “find a way” attitude, knowledge of effective recruiting techniques, experience using marketing research tools, and a strong sales ability

? What matters in successful diversity recruiting is the ability of these excellent recruiters to apply their experience and expertise to the specific case of diverse individuals, just as they would to any other high-potential candidate that has been identified.

? A significant portion of recruiting is really about identifying what candidates need and then selling them on the notion that your company will satisfy those needs

? Focus on passive candidates who make up 80% of the candidate population.

Sullivan concludes with some sage advice. “The interests and demands of diversity candidates are constantly changing, and diversity recruiting programs need to be responsive to those changes in order to be dynamic. The time has come to update your tools and strategies and to reinvigorate diversity recruiting. By borrowing the tools and strategies that have proven so effective in high-tech during the last few years and adapting them to diversity recruiting, you will dramatically improve the results you get from your diversity recruiting program.”

Diversity recruiting is here to stay!

(Personal PS: I’m writing this in the lobby of the Westin Hotel in downtown Boston on February 3^rd. Boston is mobbed, jubilant, and ecstatic. In an hour, the World Champion New England Patriots will be feted by 1.5 million people. How sweet it is!)

“A bias is an inflexible positive or negative prejudgment about the nature, character, and abilities of an individual and is based on a generalized idea about the group to which the person belongs.”

This month I want to tell you about Making Diversity Work: Seven Steps for Defeating Bias in the Workplace, by Sondra Thiederman, Ph.D. (Dearborn Trade Publishing, 30 South Wacker Drive, Suite 2500, Chicago, IL 60606-7481, 800-245-2665, trade@dearborn.com)

“Bias is sapping American business of time, energy, and in the end, money.” The price of bias covers a lot of bases:

1. Litigation: discrimination suits are every executive’s nightmare
2. Lost employees: both the hidden and direct costs of losing good employees are shockingly high
3. Diminished sales and lost customers
4. Wasted time: managers throw away dozens of hours each year mediating bias-related conflicts.

Making Diversity Work is concerned with the subtler form of bias “the ones held by otherwise nice people (that’s you and me and most of the folks we know) and that are insidious in the harm they do to our workplaces, our communities, and ourselves.” The author, Sondra Thiederman, makes it clear that biases are attitudes not behaviors. She gives us many examples and real life experiences that you will recognize. She doesn’t try to redress the sins of the past; she is more interested in defining bias reduction tools for today and tomorrow. The Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, at a recent diversity breakfast, made a similar statement about conditions in Boston, “Don’t let the scars of the past cloud the future.”

Thiederman’s thesis and mantra are clear: bias busting can be done. “We are, after all, not born biased. There is no genetic predisposition to bias, no bias gene rides on our chromosomes, there is no DNA test that can identify who is biased and who is not. Bias is learned. It is an acquired habit of thought rooted in fear and fueled by conditioning.”

“Biases are learned from our parents, from the media, and from positive and negative experiences. Although blatant messages of bias are dangerous, the subtle and ambiguous ones are often the most difficult to resist and cure. This is because they can be almost impossible to identify. Once biases are learned, the culture as a whole plays a role in helping them thrive. This is particularly true of those cultures in which biased attitudes are tolerated. Because toleration perpetuates bias, it is important that these attitudes be corrected no matter who holds them.”

Thiederman says that it seems as if human beings are afflicted with an immune deficiency when it comes to the bias bug. “The bias virus is remarkably hardy.” She proposes that the heart of the healing process for the bias virus is The Vision Renewal Process, a seven step process designed to “help you become aware of your biases and guide you step-by-step through the stages of ridding yourself of their influence.” I’ll list the steps and comment on three of them:

1. Become mindful of your biases

2. Identify the alleged benefits of your biases

3. Put your biases through triage: which of my biases should I work on first?

4. Dissect your biases.

5. Identify Common Kinship Groups

6. Shove your biases aside

7. Beware the bias revival.

Thiederman introduces becoming mindful of your biases with a reaction to a quote from Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground:

Every man has reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone but only his friends. He has other matters in his mind which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself and that in secret. But there are other things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.

Thiederman’s reaction:

One category of Dostoyevsky’s sequestered things is our biases, or secret beliefs of how we feel about other groups of people. I agree with Dostoyevsky that fear is the primary cause of this secrecy. The fear that prevents us from admitting bias is that of having to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we may not be quite as nice as we, and others, like to think we are.

In Step Three, Put Your Biases Through Triage, Thiederman examines a truism and prescribes a course of action: “Everybody has biases: big ones, small ones, destructive ones, (almost) harmless ones. We need to aim our guns at the biases that do the most damage. In short, pick your fights.”

Step Five describes identifying our common kinship groups and reminds the reader: “the more ‘we‘ we can muster, the more commonness we can find between ourselves and other kinship groups, the more positive we will feel about them.” Last week in the waiting room of a VA hospital a black fellow patient and I struck up a conversation. When he told me that he served in the 82^nd Airborne Division, I said: “You look too intelligent to have been in the 82^nd.” He responded in a millisecond: “You have to be one of those nuts from the 101^st!” Two strangers, different races, share the paratrooper commonness.

Part Three, Gateway Events: Entering Diversity Dialogue, opens with some straightforward advice and an unforgettable phrase. “We must begin carrying on conversations about bias because conversation is our most powerful weapon against the fear and misunderstanding that surround us; it is also the most powerful tool we have for fighting bias. It is time we risk hurt feelings, discomfort, and even anger.” Thiederman laments: “there is a crisis in courage when it comes to bias.” The phrase that I will remember is “diversity is a contact sport.”

Some examples of ‘gateway events’ include:

• Perhaps you witness an act of bias against a friend, acquaintance, or colleague or hear an inappropriate joke or comment
• Maybe someone falsely accuses you of bias
• Perhaps you say or do something that inadvertently offends someone
• Maybe you witness someone else being falsely accused of bias
• Perhaps you say or do something involving diversity that you immediately regret.

Thiederman forces us to face a few facts:

• The responsibility for stifling the spread of bias rests on each of us and our main method for achieving this goal is conversation.
• What we accept is what we teach.
• We have to name the fear that prevents us from dialoguing effectively.
• The three R’s, resist, remember, rethink, sum up what our initial reaction should be to any gateway event.
• Avoid dogmatic or absolute statements in the heat of a gateway event.
• Lowering the volume of both tone and words increases interest in what we have to say, maximizes credibility, and minimizes resistance to our message.
• Listening attentively and openly is perhaps the single most important aspect of dialoguing about diversity.

The book is not always a pleasant and easy read. Treading lightly is not Thiederman’s forte. She makes some unwavering arguments; after all, bias reduction is her life’s work. Pointing out the way to diminish our fundamental attitudes that generate inappropriate behavior is no easy task. One of her objectives in writing the book is to provide the tools to make examining our biases less threatening and, therefore, more productive. She believes that if “we have a firm sense of our identity and worth; we are not threatened by new ideas, fresh values, and unfamiliar ways of doing things.”

Thiederman has staunch opinions. You don’t have to guess where she stands on the issues. She makes her points with courage and conviction. She deals with an uncomfortable subject, tells us what we have to hear in unequivocal terms, and cautions us that biases interfere with our abilities. She challenges us to get rid of our biases and challenges corporate America to make diversity work.

Thiederman gives real world, real time illustrations and vignettes that teach and provide hope. Her stories are about people we all know; every now and again she hits you right between the eyes with candor that strikes pretty close to home. Her strategies are constructive and make effective use of her experience and her engaging sense of humor. Her strong convictions give her the fortitude to ask us to examine our conscience, be honest, and work to ferret out our biases.

I learned from Making Diversity Work. I enjoyed the way she builds her case with stories, sometimes humorous, other times embarrassing but always true to life like parables. I added quite a few quotations to my database; quotes that I will remember and use. Some of them are in the article above; others include:

• We need to go after those biases that either cause pain or interfere with our ability to function successfully.
• Generally, those who have few biases tend to be fairly indifferent to whether or not a person is diverse.
• Denying a difference, when it is pertinent to the situation, suggests that we feel there is something wrong with that difference.
• The biggest obstacle to making diversity work is the biases that exist consciously or unconsciously in the organization.
• Making diversity work is an individual responsibility.
• Diversity is a contact sport.

Personal note: In January I returned to diversity recruiting after a three-year hiatus by joining The Corporate Source Group (www.csg-search.com). CSG has offices in seven states and my role is leading their diversity practice.

I wish TFL readers and their loved ones a happy, healthy, successful and peaceful 2004.

Recently we were in the midst of Boston‘s first Nor’easter of the season. The snow had been falling for over twenty-four hours. The experts said we had twenty-four more to go. I was home fighting a battle with pneumonia and pneumonia was winning on rounds. My January article was due on Paul Hawkinson’s desk in two days. During the past three years we have examined a variety of diversity issues in The Fordyce Letter. We mentioned the business case for diversity a few times but hadn’t met it head on. Everyone expects a surge in hiring in 2004. A vigorous hiring market will bring more attention to the business case for diversity. Corporate leaders love to focus on the business case; sometimes it seems like they talk it to death. Let’s begin the New Year with some useful information about the business case for diversity.

According to J. Howard and Associates, a Boston area consulting firm, companies deal with workforce diversity in four different ways:

Complacent denial: Senior management maintains diversity or inclusion isn’t a problem in their organization;

Clever obstruction: Companies focus on staying out of trouble and heading off discrimination lawsuits rather than dealing with diversity in a meaningful way;

Ineffectual efforts: Companies may want to achieve genuine inclusion but are unable to build effective programs throughout the organization;

Strategic leadership: Senior management recognizes inclusion as a strategic business issue, and is committed to eliminating negative treatment and building processes that effect change.

I view the business case for diversity in a pretty simplistic way. The buying power of the various ethnic groups is staggering; the economic possibilities presented by the emerging markets are plentiful. The 2000 census signaled that the demographics of the United States are changing at a meteoric pace and the numbers do not lie.

I believe that pushing for diversity without a good business reason does more harm than good and makes about as much sense as a fish riding a bicycle. Diversity is here and is changing the traditional way of doing business. It creates opportunities, opens new markets, and facilitates doing business globally. Recruiting firms and corporations have to deal with it; everyone has to deal with it. It certainly doesn’t take a senior VP of Marketing with a Harvard MBA to conclude that today in America diversity is an integral part of a company’s business growth.

The Business Case for Diversity, by Dr. Samuel Betances and Dr. Laura Torres Souder, (www.ihediversity.gwu.edu/Events/Betances-diversitybus.htm) explains the business case for diversity:

Diversity initiatives must respond to multiple and ever-changing challenges in the workplace – globalization, increasing technology, a shrinking workforce, fewer males, downsizing of military installations and the ensuing displaced labor pools, the changing roles of women in the labor market, work and family issues, sexual orientation, anti-discrimination legislation, greater ethnic awareness, immigration, religious beliefs, the aging workforce, and the quest for people with mental or physical disabilities to make greater contributions. These and other related factors make diversity initiatives legitimate bottom line issues.

The Corporate Leadership Council (www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com) published The Business Case for Diversity, May 2003. This seven-page, well-referenced publication is a must read for people involved in diversity initiatives. The report opens with a statement on the value of diversity:

Demographics research suggests that the future workforce will be much more diverse including individuals of different genders, ages, races, ethnicities, and lifestyles. Effectively leveraging this human capital will play a large role in companies’ future competitiveness and economic performance.

Companies profiled in Council research explain that the key driver in fostering a diverse culture is the competitive advantage gained. A study conducted by the Conference Board in 1996 indicates that the diversity of customers and markets, global diversity and productivity impact are the three top reasons companies invest in diversity initiatives. Diversity in the workplace gives companies a greater ability to compete in business markets that are also becoming increasingly diverse.

Recruiting diversity candidates is an integral part of the business case for diversity. Companies want to hire the best and the brightest. Today some of the best and the brightest are people of diversity. I did diversity search for over 25 years and was sick of hearing the mythical observation: “We’d like to hire diversity candidates but they are not out there.” In all my years in search I never failed to find diversity candidates in the most esoteric of disciplines I failed many times to get diversity candidates to interview in the northeast.

How well a company works; how productive and successful it is in a highly competitive global economy, depends on whether it has the best people, people who are comfortable working across lines of race,, sexual orientation, age, gender, religion, and background. The days of insularity and parochialism are gone. Companies that are not inclusive, welcoming, and inviting are not getting the best workers. Diversity is a business imperative because it affects competitiveness. Diversity recruiting should be a natural outcome of an inclusive hiring process that is based entirely on business-directed criteria.

Today’s diversity customers have thought provoking questions for corporations: Why should we buy your products or use your services? Why should we be your loyal customers? Why should we help your company grow? You don’t hire us. You don’t seek our input. You have no place for us. We are not members of your senior management. If companies are going after the diversity dollar in the emerging markets, doesn’t it make sound business sense to have diversity in their workplace? Put yourself in the diversity person’s place. Would you really support a company that ignores you every step of the way?

“Diversity Recruiting The Compelling Business Case”, an article written by Dr. John Sullivan for Electronic Recruiting Exchange, in January 2000, stresses the importance of diversity recruiting.

There are many excellent legal and social arguments for recruiting diverse employees. However the most powerful and effective arguments that I have made for excellence in diversity recruiting relate to the business and the dollar impact that diversity recruiting can have on the bottom line. Does having a workforce with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and ideas have impact on the firm’s profitability? Well the answer is a resounding yes!

The following global perspective is from If the World Were a Village, by Meadows and A Summary of the World, by Provasnik.

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of one hundred people, would you recognize it? Here’s the makeup:

52 villagers would be female; 48 would be male

33 would be children

6 would be over the age of 65

58 would be Asian

70 would be persons of color

30 would be Christian

6 would own half the village’s wealth; all 6 would be US citizens

9 would speak English

50 would suffer from malnutrition

80 would live in sub-standard housing

66 would not have access to clean, safe drinking water

10 would be lesbian, gay, or bisexual

1 would have a college education

In July the lively diversity recruiting postings on Electronic Recruiting Exchange, gave us plenty to think, wonder, and talk about. One made a subtle but between the eyes point. What do you think?

“I am a white male. I am afraid for my children’s future. Capital and opportunity are rushing towards my kids and away from the kids I pass every day when I walk home from work. Those dispossessed souls will not stay down for long. Either we get selfish and start taking the extra steps and risks to create more opportunity, or they will take it from us … I, as white male, still have a better chance of getting capital (and therefore opportunity) than anyone else on the planet. I agree with everyone here. I hope that I never get hired because of my gender or color of my skin. Oops … too late.”

Last month we began a discussion on why diversity and diversity recruiting continues to be under the spotlight. Let’s look at a few more reasons and facts and then see what this all means to the placement industry.How do most Americans perceive corporate diversity? Barbara Frankel, in a DiversityInc.com article published in October 2002, answered this question. “They believe their own companies care about the subject but that U.S. businesses as a whole still discriminate against people of color, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities and older workers. And they’re not yet convinced that a diverse workforce means a more profitable business.”In this article she quotes Toni L. Riccardi, Chief Diversity Officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers: “While we can take heart because most Americans believe that their companies are committed to an inclusive workforce, our recent survey makes it clear that a great deal of work remains unfinished regarding matters of diversity. The fact that older and disabled workers, gays and lesbians face a tougher road to career advancement is alarming. We’ve got a long way to go before we can realize the American dream of a workplace which truly affords equal opportunity for all employees.”Last November in another DiversityInc.com article, Ruth Zeilberger, answered the question: “Does being diversity-challenged indicate someone is a racist?” Not necessarily, says Roosevelt Thomas. He worries that the inability of corporate America to think beyond the ‘-isms’ indicates a lack of sophistication about the necessary remedy. “Our society has never said it wants diversity. Our society said it wanted representation,” says Thomas, who believes it’s time to start thinking beyond equal opportunity and toward addressing the challenge of empowering a diverse workforce … because we are going to have more and more diversity.One of the reasons for the focus on diversity is definitely the buying power of diversity communities. Here is a summary that is causing corporate America and the recruitment industry to do some planning. In the United States people of diversity have more purchasing power today than ever before. Companies are always striving to increase their market share; recruiting firms are continually looking for new avenues of business. You don’t need a Harvard MBA to figure out the next step.By 2040 half of all Americans will be multiethnic. People we now call “minorities” will be in the majority. The following startling facts and numbers from the 2000 Census were compiled by The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, the U.S. Census Bureau, and reported by DiversityInc.com:

• Latinos are the largest ethnic group in the U.S. with a population of 35.3 million and comprising 13.2% of the U.S. population with annual buying power ranging from $273 billion to $445 billion.
• African Americans are the second largest ethnic group in the country with a total population of 34.7 million people; 12.9% of the population with buying power that will exceed $292 billion by 2006.
• Asian Americans with a total population of 11.9 million are the third largest minority group in the U.S. and make up 3.6% of the population. Their buying power was over $255 billion in 2001.
• Major studies estimate the total number of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people (GLBT) in the United States to be between 13 million and 17 million. Depending on the source, the percentage of GLBT people in this country ranges from 3% to 10% of the total U.S. population. The total annual buying power is estimated to be about $430 million.

How do all these facts and figures affect the bottom lines of major corporations? The Society of Human Resource Management and Fortune Magazine surveyed companies and answered this question very definitively in an article entitled: “Keeping Your Edge: Managing a Diverse Corporate Culture”.75% had recruiting efforts designed to expand diversity within the organization39% had diversity related career development34% measured the diversity performance of managers20% had explicit promotion opportunities to break through the glass ceiling19% had cultural orientation programs79% believe that diversity improves corporate culture77% believe that diversity improves recruitment of new employees52% believe that diversity improves client relations41% believe that diversity improves retention of employees28% believe that diversity positively affects profitabilityIt’s pretty clear that recruiting firms should take a hard look at their practices and specialty areas. Can you help your client companies solve their diversity recruiting problems? Is it worth adding diversity recruiting to your product mix so that your clients will not look elsewhere? The almost natural reticence to even consider diversity recruiting is an enigma. Most of us agree with the statement made by Robert Hughes in Culture of Complaint the Fraying of America: “There never was a core America in which everyone looked the same, spoke the same language, worshipped the same gods and believed the same things.”To lay the groundwork for some strategic thinking, examine briefly some of the maladies and stark realities of diversity recruiting in Corporate America. First, the maladies:

1. White men who have been running U.S. companies have been less than enthusiastic about diversity. Lip service and tepidity is as far as they will go with diversity.
2. Their succession planning is a reinvention of themselves. They perpetuate the same kind of leadership and simply ignore the facts staring them in the face.
3. They miss the boat both from the people and revenue sides.

The realities:

• Diversity is here. Future generations of workers will be people of diversity. The workforce of the future will not be a white majority.
• Companies that are recruiting and hiring diversity candidates today will have the edge in hiring the best talent in the future. Top diversity candidates in the future will seek out companies that strongly recruit and develop diversity workers today.
• Retention of multicultural workers has to be a major part of today’s strategic planning. Losing the best and the brightest costs money.

Remember that women and diversity people will make up about 70% of all new workers by 2008. The logical conclusion is that when diversity is not a priority, companies lose. They lose opportunities to enter and capture emerging markets; they lose opportunities to gain new customers and to attract talented employees. It is obvious and reasonable that if companies don’t allow all people to participate, why should they buy their products or join their team? Companies that ignore diversity today will leave a legacy: “the dinosaur legacy” gone and forgotten, or gone but remembered with a cynical smile. America is changing before our eyes. Companies that don’t understand the ramifications of these changes won’t be around to regret their disdain for diversity.Retention says it all. Retention is the best recruiting tool. Retention is the flip side of recruiting. When an organization lacks diversity in leadership roles, recruiting and retaining top diversity talent is difficult. Keeping productive employees saves money and time.Here is a practical checklist for evaluating your entry into the diversity recruiting marketplace.

• There is an expressed need for diversity talent; the demand is high.
• Companies want to hire diversity candidates and they are receptive to working with recruiting firms.
• Contrary to the myth, diversity candidates exist.
• Diversity candidates have choices today; they can be selective.
• Diversity recruiting is a worthwhile service to offer client companies.
• Will you get a significant return on your investment of time?
• Target some companies to work with; test it out; do your homework: are your target companies serious? Select national companies initially.
• There are few recruiting firms that excel in diversity recruiting. Have to stick with it for the long haul.
• If you’re good at diversity recruiting the word spreads

Keep a few things in mind, and, remember the dinosaur. How well a company works; how productive and successful it is in a highly competitive global economy, depends on whether it has the best people, and has people who are comfortable working across lines of race, class, sexual orientation, age, gender, religion, and background. The days of insularity and parochialism are gone. Companies that are not inclusive, welcoming, and inviting are not getting the best workers. Diversity is a business imperative because it affects competitiveness.There is another reason for seeking diversity at all levels. Companies today will not be healthy unless their environment is healthy. A healthy environment in the twenty-first century is one that has the most challenging, the most rewarding career possibilities, and an environment that is truly open to people of diversity.Pressing for diversity without a good business reason does more harm than good. Pushing for diversity without a good business reason makes as much sense as a fish riding a bicycle. Companies need to hire and develop the best people they can find. Diversity, then, should be a natural outcome of an inclusive hiring process that was based entirely on business reasons.Mamphila Ramphele, a leader in the anti-apartheid activism of the 1960s in South Africa, was among the first to be detained and then banned to a remote corner of the Transvaal. She was also a colleague of Stephen Biko. Across Boundaries tells of her childhood in the northern Transvaal, her daily experience of apartheid, and of her early determination to become a doctor despite being black and female. Her words should serve as a standard for diversity recruiting: “Everyone deserves opportunity, no one deserves success!”I hope before I die that I witness a couple of things: I would love to see The Red Sox win the World Series, and, to experience America believing that diversity is not a compromise but a step forward.Finally, I ask you to think of the dinosaurs ? not “Barney” of television fame, but the ancient dinosaurs. Can you imagine them prancing up and down the streets of Boston and New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles?Picture these dinosaurs roaring to each other as the universe moves forward without them. Today’s dinosaurs are the titans of industry, even the recruiting industry, who ignore diversity. These 21st century dinosaurs talk and roar to each other as the world of commerce becomes more diverse. One day, sad to say, they will wake up and find themselves quite alone because the world of business will have passed them by.

On a beautiful evening last May, Paul Hawkinson and I had dinner in St. Louis. Over the years and in a variety of cities we’ve enjoyed many memorable get-togethers. This was no different. After getting caught up, laughing a lot, and sharing opinions about world conditions, we focused on the placement business and its future. We talked about diversity being such a hot issue and how recruiting firms with diversity practices remained busy even in this slow economy. Paul asked:

“You’ve been out of the business for almost three years now. Do you still get calls from HR people and recruiting firms asking you to refer diversity candidates?”"I sure do. I get at least seven to ten calls and emails a month from companies, former clients, and placement firms looking for referrals and good networking sources to find diversity candidates. I still get resumes and calls from diversity candidates, too. When this first started I thought that, because of the “non-compete” with my former company, staffers were looking for “freebies.” Not so; they were just looking for help.”"Do you still think that placement firms should develop specialties in placing all kinds of diversity candidates? You know, not just race and gender, but the whole range of diversity.”"You bet I do. When companies start hiring and when the predicted labor shortage kicks in, the demand for the best and brightest is going to be red hot; and, today, a good number of the best and the brightest will be diversity candidates. Recruiting firms that don’t have a handle on diversity recruiting will miss out.”

Fast forward to an early July telephone conversation. We discussed the spirited exchange of ideas and thoughts on diversity recruiting posted on Electronic Recruiting Exchange. Both of us were amazed at the divergent opinions and the depth of emotions exhibited by the HR participants. Paul suggested that my next article or articles focus on why diversity recruiting is such a hot topic today and what this means to people in our business. So, in this article and in the next we will do just that.The views of the HR thought leaders who took the time to post on ERE are great starting points. Some of the postings were incredible; most were insightful. The incredible first:

• “Isn’t diversity recruiting really a neat and clean little way of saying ‘No white men need apply’?”
• “Since when has the color of one’s skin, which is what this is all about, contributed to out-of-the-box thinking?”
• “Today’s … movement is not about diversity per se. It is about power, advantage, politics, about votes and about taking.”
• “Diversity is about quotas.”
• “Deliberate diversity hiring is bad for the companies that practice it in almost every way.”
• “As soon as you execute a search on a diversity web site, you are discriminating against a non-diversity candidate.”
• “Sure, diversity recruiting is a cover-up for other desires, and many in the HR world are opposed to it …”

The casual reader would conclude that these authors have either exposed their biases or they have a limited knowledge of diversity. Maybe both, or, as kids say, maybe they are “scaredy-cats” who are unreasonably afraid that the world is changing. Now, some of the insightful postings:

• “Diversity simply means creating an organization of individuals from various walks of life, with differing backgrounds, life experiences, and perspectives.”
• “Diversity recruiting is about opportunity. It is about equaling the playing field for all. It is about omitting discrimination and ensuring that all people are offered an opportunity, are represented, and can participate, regardless of the color of their skin.”
• “The best way to bring in diverse people is by making sure that your organization is recognized as one of the best places to work, that employees love working there and then good referrals will flood in.”
• “The goal of diversity hiring is to always hire the qualified candidate.”

You can see the chasm of feelings that diversity evokes. Diversity is a great deal more than race and gender. It includes: age, ethnicity, physical abilities and qualities, and sexual orientation. Some dimensions of diversity can be changed like educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, parental status, religious beliefs, work experiences, etc. Two things are certain: diversity is here to stay and diversity recruiting is hot and is going to get hotter.Most TFL readers are familiar with Dr. John Sullivan who writes for Electronic Recruiting Exchange and who has contributed articles to TFL. In an ERE article that appeared on Friday, January 14, 2000, he wrote: “There are many excellent legal and social arguments for recruiting diverse employees. However the most powerful and effective arguments I have made for excellence in diversity recruiting are related to the business and the dollar impact that diversity recruiting can have on the bottom line. Does having a workforce with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and ideas have impact of the firm’s profitability? Well the answer is a resounding yes!”You can bet that Corporate America is concerned about the business case for diversity. Some corporate leaders talk it to death but give it a marginal glance; others are actually doing something about it. Some of the reasons diversity and diversity recruiting are on the front burner:

• Demographic changes are reshaping corporate strategies. Numbers don’t lie. The 2000 census data signaled that United States demographics are changing at a meteoric pace.
• Diversity has changed the traditional way of doing business.
• Diversity creates business opportunities and can open new and emerging markets.
• The buying power of diversity communities.
• Ignoring diversity causes lost business opportunities and paves the way for lawsuits.
• Diversity improves workplace efficiency and quality.
• Companies noted for their successful diversity initiatives draw from a larger labor pool to attract and retain the best talent.
• Research proves that heterogeneous work teams improve the sharing of ideas and the creative interaction of team members.
• An inclusive, welcoming environment where diversity thrives is the basis of achieving success in global markets.
• Diversity builds the business, reacts to customer needs, and builds stockholder equity.
• Companies that ‘get it’ meet business objectives, enter new markets with ease, and become employers of choice.

Diversity includes everyone, even white males. Diversity is a key ingredient in providing opportunities for everyone. Sure, managing diversity is a challenge that does present a unique set of issues. Are the benefits worth it? We know that Dr. John Sullivan’s answer was a resounding “Yes.” Michael Dell, Dell Computer Corporation’s Chairman and CEO, said in the May/June issue of Profiles in Diversity Journal: “We want to take advantage of the resources and talents of all our people. Diversity becomes very important in helping Dell fulfill its full potential and mission.” Many other organizations agree and are putting money on it. Some additional benefits to a diverse workforce:

• Retains top workers and maximizes workplace satisfaction for all employees.
• Encourages strong community involvement and outreach.
• Enhances multiculturalism and spreads the word that this is a good place to work.
• Promotes successful recruiting activities and helps the organization to become an employer of choice.
• Widens the labor pool, grows leaders, and improves workforce quality that results in a better return on human capital.
• Exposes and reduces prejudices and stereotyping.

A great deal of controversy resulted from the recent Supreme Court decision that affected college admissions. Colleges are in the business of educating. Maybe the University of Michigan and other colleges are showing us the way. In an Open Letter from major educational associations and councils, entitled: “On the Importance of Diversity in Higher Education,” the world of academia adds to our understanding of the value and benefits of diversity.”Many colleges and universities share a common belief, born of experience, that diversity in their student bodies, faculties, and staff is important for them to fulfill their primary mission: providing a quality education. The public is entitled to know why these institutions believe so strongly that racial and ethnic diversity should be one factor among the many considered in admissions and hiring. The reasons include:

• Diversity enriches the educational experience. We learn from those whose experiences, beliefs, and perspectives are different from our own, and these lessons can be taught best in a richly diverse, intellectual, and social environment.
• It promotes personal growth and a healthy society. Diversity challenges stereotyped preconceptions; it encourages critical thinking; and it helps students learn to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds.
• It strengthens communities and the workplace. Education within a diverse setting prepares students to become good citizens in an increasingly complex, pluralistic society; it fosters mutual respect and teamwork; and it helps build communities whose members are judged by the quality of their character and their contributions.
• It enhances America’s economic competitiveness. Sustaining the nation’s prosperity in the 21st century will require us to make effective use of the talents and abilities of all our citizens, in work settings that bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Next month we’ll complete this discussion on why diversity and diversity recruiting is center stage, and, what action recruiting firms should be taking to service their clients who are meeting these issues head on.

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, a professor of education at Harvard University, believes that respect is the single most important ingredient in creating authentic relationships, building healthy organizations, and establishing thriving communities. In her book, Respect, she maintains that curiosity is fundamental to relationships of all kinds and advises her readers to be genuinely interested in the stories and dreams of others. We are fueled by curiosity. Listen to her words: “Who are you? Who am I? How are we different? How are we the same? What are the feelings and experiences that we both share?Each question invites another and offers the opportunity of going deeper and discovering more. Each question hopes for understanding and is an offering of respect.” Professor Lawrence-Lightfoot declares that one of the ways to honor and enact the mission of diversity is storytelling. Authentic curiosity and rapport with someone who is different and identifying with this person across traditional boundaries leads to discovery and “weaves the tapestry of human connection.” This is compelling reinforcement for Irish Americans because we have an over-developed sense of curiosity, are natural storytellers and love a great yarn. These traits are useful tools for diversity work.Years ago I placed a senior executive, a “little person,” in a demanding position with an international corporation. One of her references was, and still is, a very well known national leader in her field. The reference he gave her was the most memorable I’ve ever heard. “Do you remember the E.F. Hutton commercial that took place in a noisy restaurant? Everyone was talking, waiters were hustling, dishes were clanging but when the E.F. Hutton representative spoke there was complete and absolute silence. Well, your candidate is the E.F. Hutton of our industry. When she speaks, everyone listens, including me no, make that especially me”. This made a tremendous impression on me and to this day I remember that candidate as “parvum sed potens” – small but powerful. This was the first occasion I had to work with Little People. Then my natural curiosity took over.Let’s define some terms. “Dwarfism is a genetic condition resulting in short stature.” “Midget is an extremely little person who is of proportionate nature.” The term “midget” dates back to 1865, the height of the “freak show” era, and was generally applied only to short-statured persons who were displayed for public amusement. Both terms can be offensive. Instead use “person of small (or short) stature” Although dwarfism is an accepted medical term, it should not be used as general terminology. When in doubt, ask. Some folks prefer the term “Little People.” Some labels beget stereotyping and seem to encourage ignorance and prejudice. Forget labels; call people by their names.Go to Little People of America’s website (http://www.lpaonline.org/) for the answers to a number of frequently asked questions. For example: is dwarfism considered a disability? Opinions vary, but dwarfism is a recognized condition under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Search practitioners should have more than a passing knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), more specifically, Titles I and V of this act. The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in all employment practices. An individual with a disability under the ADA is a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Major life activities are activities that an average person can perform with little or no difficulty, e.g., walking, breathing, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning, and working.A qualified employee or a candidate with a disability is someone who satisfies the skills, experience, education, and other job-related requirements of the position held or desired, and who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of that position. Reasonable accommodations may include:

• Making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities
• Job restructuring
• Modification of work schedules
• Acquiring or modifying equipment
• Revising or up-dating examinations, training materials, or policies
• Providing qualified readers or interpreters

Reasonable accommodations may be necessary to apply for a job and to perform job functions but an employer is not required to lower production standards to make an accommodation. An employer is required to make a reasonable accommodation to a qualified individual with a disability unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer’s business. Before making an offer of employment, an employer may not ask job applicants about the existence, nature, or severity of a disability but the employer may ask candidates about their ability to perform job functions. A job offer may be conditioned on the results of a medical examination, but only if the examination is required for all entering employees in the same job category. Medical examinations of employees must be job-related and consistent with business necessity.Keep in mind that the ADA covers all private employers, state and local governments and educational institutions that employ fifteen or more individuals. These laws also cover private and public employment agencies.Little People of America is a nonprofit organization that provides support and information to people of short stature and their families. Membership is offered to those people who are usually no taller than 4’10″ in height. Their short stature is generally caused by one of the more than 200 medical conditions known as dwarfism. Membership is also available to relatives and interested professionals who work with short statured individuals. There are 50 local chapters which meet monthly. The LPA annual national conference usually attracts more than 1000 people for a week of fun, sharing, and learning. This summer Boston will be the site of the 2003 annual conference.Little people, like all people, have a variety of jobs. No big surprise! Take a panoramic view of what some little people are doing in the American workplace. There are lawyers, accountants, quality assurance managers, journalists, teachers, controllers, chemical process engineers, psychologists, psychiatrists, webmasters, college vice president, occupational therapists, architects, programmers, systems analysts, special education teachers, drama teachers, child day care teachers, and copywriters. Some have fun jobs, too. Jobs like bartending, basketball and tennis coaching, managing a day care center for retired people, running a dairy farm, designing video games, writing science fiction, hosting a disc jockey show, and dealing cards at a Black Jack table.Little People’s Research Fund (http://www.lprf.org/) in Towson, Maryland is a charitable organization that relies on the generosity of thousands of people whose donations make research and other programs possible. Charles McElwee, the Executive Director with over thirty-five years in this field, believes that the statistic cited for the world population of little people, 195,313, is very conservative. He was most generous with his time on the phone with me and is proud and appreciative of the significant advances made possible by LPRF.When I asked him what he would like to say to The Fordyce Letters readers he responded: “Tell them that as a result of research sponsored by our donors we now know what causes dwarfism and we know how to correct it. Most Little People encounter progressive deformities during childhood. These deformities may lead to disability. In some cases breathing difficulties, gradual paralysis and even death result. But with treatment, deformities can be corrected, mobility returned, and affected people can become capable of living independently and contributing to the world. After extensive treatment, many little people have become doctors and lawyers and successful executives. Let me tell your readers about one little girl who had twenty-three major surgeries. She persevered with heroic courage. She later graduated from the University of Miami with a double major in biology and anatomy. She then received her M.D. from John Hopkins and is currently doing an internship in pediatrics. She is 34 inches tall but is a gigantic success story.”

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that I’m as old as the man in the mirror I shave every day. To keep from getting too lugubrious about this I laugh at Satchel Paige’s words: “How old would you be, if you didn’t know how old you was?” We get pretty philosophical when we think about our age and mortality but we don’t have a vote in getting older or approaching the other side of the grass. We can look for words of wisdom and comfort from some very sagacious people. Satchel Paige had a couple: “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”, and “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” Yogi Berra: “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” Senator John McCain: “Keep moving if you love life, and keep your troubles behind you.” Robert Browning: “What’s a man’s age? He must hurry more, that’s all; cram in a day what his youth took a year to hold”, and, “Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be! The last of life for which the first was made.”There are 76 million baby boomers in America! If you were born between 1946 and 1964, you’re one of them. Baby boomers grew up during the battles for civil rights. Today some of them are coming face to face with age discrimination in the workplace. Trish Nicholson reports in the March 2003 issue of the AARP Bulletin: “Fueled by charges from workers in their 40s and 50s, the number of age bias complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) jumped from 14,141 in 1999 to 19, 921 in 2002, up 41 percent”. Cari Dominguez, the EEOC Chairwoman and a former executive search professional with Heidrick and Struggles and Spencer Stuart, believes that age discrimination is still active in corporate America.The day after his 64th birthday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan opened the UN Assembly on Aging by quoting lyrics from a Beatles’ song: “Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m 64?” Globally, the population of people over 60 is growing by 2 percent each year and by the year 2050 seniors are expected to outnumber children for the first time in human history.People in our business are always looking for new market needs. They want to stay ahead of the curve and are very interested in employment trends. Aging workers are going to be very much in demand in the years ahead. Before making the case for paying attention to older workers, let’s review The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA). The ADEA prohibits employment discrimination against persons 40 years of age or older.

“It shall be unlawful for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of such individual’s age.It shall be unlawful for an employer to limit, segregate, or classify in any way, which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual or employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee because of such individual’s age.It shall be unlawful for an employment agency to fail or refuse to refer for employment, or otherwise to discriminate against, any individual because of such individual’s age, or to classify or refer for employment any individual on the basis of such individual’s age.”

The AARP Policy Book is very strong and clear on this. “To work free of age discrimination is a fundamental right. However, despite ADEA, age-based employment discrimination remains prevalent. Age discrimination can be blatant or subtle and can include such practices as refusing to hire or promote older workers, encouraging their retirement, targeting them in reductions in force, curtailing their employee benefits or limiting their training opportunities, job responsibilities and duties … Once unemployed, older workers face sharply limited employment opportunities; reemployment after job loss declines dramatically at older ages. Of the nearly 1 million workers age 55 and older that were displaced from their jobs between 1997 and 1999, only 53 percent were reemployed by February 2000. Some of these workers become “discouraged workers”, who give up the job search when it appears futile.”William D. Novelli, Executive Director and CEO of AARP, proclaims that baby boomers are going to have an impact on the future of business and employment in the U.S. In a recent speech he talks about the mystique of aging in America. “Fifty is somehow the demarcation point signifying the beginning of old age – and it’s deeply ingrained in our society. It’s even evident in our language. Think about it. We become 21 as a glorious rite of passage. We hit 50 like a brick wall. Then, we turn 65 like it’s the expiration date on a carton of milk gone bad. But, this imagery is changing fast, because the baby boomers don’t buy into the myth. And, it’s changing because it simply isn’t true, if it ever was.” He offers some thought provoking statistics:

• A baby boomer turns 50 every 7.5 seconds.
• By 2005, half of all people between the ages of 50 and 74 will be boomers.
• The size of the 50+ population will more than double over the next 35 years.
• This is changing the fundamental age distribution in our population. In 1900, only 13 percent of the population was age 50 or over. In 2000, it was over 27 percent. And, by 2020, it will be over 35 percent.

In his book, The New Paradigm of Business: Emerging Strategies for Leadership and Organizational Change, author Robert Harris writes, “The most visible differences between the corporation of the future and its present-day counterpart will not be the products they make or the equipment they use – but who will be working, how they will be working, why they will be working, and what work will mean to them.” Novelli sees four trends that will affect the workforce, employers, employees, candidates and recruiting firms.”Trend 1: Just as America is aging, so is the workplace. In this decade, the highest growth rate in the U.S. workforce will be among workers aged 55-64. In 2000, 13 percent of the workforce was 55 and older. By 2010, this figure will rise to 17 percent, or 26.6 million workers. By 2015, nearly one in five workers will be 55 or older. During that time, the number of younger workers, those aged 25-44, will actually decrease. All the while, critical shortages of qualified workers are expected, especially for service jobs.” So recruiters who want to be players in the employment marketplace of the future must consider older workers on their experience and qualifications only.”Trend 2: Boomers see retirement as a transition; not a termination. That signifies a dramatic shift from what we think of as “retirement.” AARP’s research shows that:8 in 10 baby boomers plan to work at least part-time

• 5% anticipate working full-time at a new job or career
• Only 16% say they will not work at all
• 35% will work mainly for interest and enjoyment
• 23% will work mainly for the income
• 17% envision starting their own business.”

Will there be jobs for the baby boomers in the years to come? Will the forecasted labor shortage do away with age discrimination in the workplace? Will companies and recruiting firms put aside their stereotypes of older workers? We shall see.”Trend 3: A change of corporate leadership is affecting the workplace, and the workplace is affecting corporate leadership. The workplace is changing to meet alternative work styles and schedules. Businesses are run by men and women who increasingly understand the lifestyles dictated by the modern economy.” Look at all the changes in the workplace in the past ten years: both spouses working, company daycares, working at home two days a week, flexible work schedules, virtual offices, “flex time”, job sharing, four day/ten hour day work weeks these changes are miniscule compared to future changes. Companies and recruiting firms who do “business as usual” will be dinosaurs.”Trend 4: A new image of aging is arriving to erase the negative stereotypes of older workers and to increase their value to employers. Traits exhibited by midlife and older workers take on renewed value in the modern economy – traits such as experience, loyalty, attention to task, perseverance, work habits, and emotional maturity.” It will be great to see the dismantling of the myths and stereotypes that abound today about older workers: “they are not technically savvy, they have low energy level, their need their nap after lunch, younger people do not like to work with them, etc.” Maybe we can stretch a couple of Satchel Paige sayings to fit this situation: “I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I would toss one that ain’t never been seen by this generation,” and “Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.”AARP’s William Novelli completed his speech with two facts and with a statement of surprise. “Companies are not there yet. They do not yet recognize the attributes and the value that older workers bring to the workforce. We have been surveying the attitudes, perceptions, and policies affecting older employees in the American workplace since 1985. Our most recent survey, American Business and Older Employees, conducted last year found that:

• The majority of American businesses are not yet preparing for an older workforce.
• Older workers are still generally viewed by American businesses as lacking the ability to learn and to understand new technologies, and as not being flexible enough when asked to perform different tasks.”

Mr. Novelli expressed surprise at these findings because “older employees – those age 50 and above – were seen to possess all but one of the top seven qualities that companies consider most desirable in any employee. The one quality they fell short on was willing to be flexible about doing different tasks (but they maxed the other six). Older workers are regarded as:

• Committed to doing quality work;
• Getting along well with others;
• Having solid performance records;
• Possessing basic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic;
• Being someone you can count on in a crisis; and
• Being loyal and dedicated to the company.

I like to think that most people in our industry and in human resources value the dignity of work. I know that people who have lost their jobs through layoffs, restructuring, downsizing or whatever value the dignity and therapy of work. Older workers are the hidden resource for the future. Maybe some day soon corporate America will get it. Do you remember the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem we had to memorize in grammar school? The Village Blacksmith?

His brow is wet with honest sweatHe earns whatever he can,And looks the whole world in the face,For he owes not any man.Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing,Onward through life he goes;Each morning sees some task begin,Each evening sees it close;Something attempted, something done,Has earned a night’s repose.

Bernard Baruch once affirmed. “Every man has a right to be wrong in his opinions but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” It’s natural when you read a column on “diversity” to judge it by your own frame of reference and beliefs, your understanding, values, and stereotypes. This month we’ll look at a cross section of opinions and then quote some facts.First, what do some well-known people have to say about diversity? Mark Twain: “All I care to know is that a man is a human being. That is enough for me.” Helen Keller: “The highest result of education is tolerance.” Oscar Hammerstein: “If you really believe in the brotherhood of man and want to come into the fold, you’ve got to let everyone else in, too.” Walt Whitman: “Whoever degrades another, degrades me.” William Penn: “If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much greater a sin it is to condemn a whole people.“Voltaire was pretty direct with “Prejudice is the child of ignorance“; Samuel Johnson was more candid, “To be prejudiced is always to be weak.” Henry David Thoreau offered, “It is never too late to give up our prejudices.” Friedrich Van Otto preached: “At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being.“Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed to the world, “Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another seeks to degrade all nationalities. Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races. Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religions.“John F. Kennedy left no doubt where he stood. Read three of his memorable and poignant statements: “The rights of all men are threatened when the rights of any man are threatened.” – “Let us not be blind to our differences. But let us direct attention to our common interests and help make the world safe for diversity.” – “There are no ‘white’ or ‘colored’ signs on the graveyards of battle.“Max Lerner’s admonition is the last quote and one that serves as a practical, daily guide for living, “In the end, as any successful teacher will tell you, you can only teach the things that you are. If we practice racism, then it is racism that we teach.“The world is changing probably too quickly for a lot of us – but changing just the same. A recent sampling of facts proves this. These facts and statistics appeared in media articles, news commentaries, research studies, and “Factoids” published on DiversityInc.com.Last month we focused on GLBT issues, so let’s begin there. When more than 2,000 Americans were asked which groups of people were most vulnerable to harassment or denial of promotions in the workplace, 73 percent of the respondents said GLBT workers experienced this kind of discrimination (Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs survey).According to a nationwide survey by Novations/J. Howard & Associates, a Boston-based diversity consulting company, 25% of employed Americans heard someone in their workplace ridiculed last year because of their sexual orientation. The most frequent complaint, made by 33.7% of the 685 respondents in the telephone survey, was sexually inappropriate comments. The questions posed were, “Did you hear one or more colleagues at work do any of the following during 2002?” The “yes” answers in percentages:

• Make a sexually inappropriate comment: 33.7%
• Use a racial slur: 29.5%
• Use an ethnic slur: 29.3%
• Ridicule someone based on their sexual orientation: 24.4%
• Ridicule someone based on their age: 22.9%
• Ridicule someone because they are disabled: 7.2%

How many of the Fortune 500 Companies have polices that address sexual orientation? The Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. reports that 296 of these companies have sexual orientation policies and that 172 companies offer domestic-partnership benefits.What is the current and future buying power of various diversity groups in the United States? Buying power for the GLBT market in 2002 was estimated at $451 billion and projected to reach $608 billion by 2007. The combined buying power of African Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans in 2007 should more than triple its 1990 level of $453 billion, totaling almost $1.4 trillion (Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia).Gallup polls in 2001 and 2002 found that 66% of African Americans believe that race relations will always be a problem in this country. The 2002 poll indicated that many African Americans are not satisfied with their jobs and personal safety.The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, reports that about 26 of every 100 African American men and 20 of every 100 Latino men with graduate degrees will attempt to start a new business. Many believe that this is a direct result, whether perceived or real, of the dearth of opportunity for senior level positions in corporate America. Research from the Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce suggests that minority businesses have little access to capital and few chances of bidding for and winning significant contracts from large firms. According to the Bureau of Census, minority businesses are growing six times faster than non-minority firms despite these challenges.Women hold 2,140 of the 13,673 officer positions in the Fortune 500 according to Catalyst’s 2002 Census. Four hundred and twenty-nine of the Fortune 500 companies have at least one woman corporate officer.Asian Indians are the fastest-growing segment among all Asian groups in the United States, now totaling nearly 2 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Additionally, the Asian-Indian population currently is the sixth-largest ethnic community and third-largest immigrant community – behind Mexicans and Chinese – in the United States.Eleven percent of U.S. residents age 5 and older, or about 28 million people, speak Spanish at home. Thirteen percent of Americans identify as black or African American, a total of 34.7 million people; the Latino population grew 58 percent over the past decade (2000 U.S. Census). Today women earn 57% of undergraduate degrees, 50% of law degrees, and 44% of business degrees. The U.S. Census reports that the number of people with disabilities in the workplace has risen from 43 million in 1990 to 54 million in 2000. Korn Ferry, one of the nations’ leading executive search firms states that 41% of Fortune 1000 firms have African Americans on their boards.Last December’s issue of Diversity Monitor, published by Hunt-Scanlon, stated, “The executive career site of The Wall Street Journal, “CareerJournal.com, reported that executives who are over age 50 may have an especially difficult time finding employment because many companies are hesitant to hire older workers who may cost more than their younger counterparts.”The world is indeed changing!There are a number of topics that I would like to discuss in future issues of TFL but I need your help. Please let me know what subjects are of the most interest to you. I’ll list the topics here and ask you to prioritize them. Please send me an email (frank@diverseworkplace.com) with your selection of the top ten. Thanks.1. How to deal with cultural differences when interviewing candidates.2. What does the business case for diversity really mean?3. Working with older candidates. Aging in the workplace.4. Placing candidates with disabilities.5. The new trend of recruiting firms offering (and charging for) coaching services for candidates placed.6. What do companies look for in a recruiting firm? How do companies evaluate recruiting firms?”7. The recruiting firm’s place in job search networking.8. Teaching candidates to ace the interview.9. Where are the jobs for diversity candidates? What industries are most interested in hiring diversity candidates? What companies view diversity recruiting as a priority?10. When do companies want to use candidate research? Why do companies want to use research? Where research sells? What disciplines are the best prospects for candidate research?11. Marketing tools for recruiting firms.12. Developing new specialty areas.13. Networking and partnering with diversity organizations.14. How to build a database of prospective diversity candidates.15. Identifying and using diversity candidate resources on the Internet.16. Diversity online: beyond direct sourcing.17. Case studies of diversity searches.18. Finding passive diversity candidates on the Internet.19. Helping your clients to plan and implement a diversity recruiting strategy.20. Building networks with diversity candidates.21. Using the client’s culture to find and place the best and brightest diversity candidates.